Display bin supporting shelf



United States epesses f Y. DrsrLAY uns snrronrnso snn'rr George I.Welter, Chicago, lll., assigner to Tote-Cart Company, la partnershipApplication May 23, 1957, Serial No. 661,230 2 Claims. (Cl. 2211-153)his invention relates to an improved means for supporting merchandisedisplays and in particular to a support for a display bin comprisingWire containers of the type shown in the copending application'of HaroldI. Sides, Serial No. 636,667, led January 28, 1957, now Patent No.2,868,391, wherein the merchandise is dumped into form of extensivesolid, and hence heavy, shelves on which the merchanidse for sale isdisplayed. Naturally, extensive shelves of this nature are expensive andfurthermore tend to be dirt and dust collectors. Moreover, solidshelving presents a visibility problem to the customer in that it tendsto hide from View the merchandise on adjacent lower shelves.

The display bin support of this invention overcomes these problems inthat it is much less expensive to produce and islight in weight.Moreover, a better visibility of merchandise is afforded While thesupport will easily hold as much weight as anyshelf commonly in use anddoes not collect dust.

lt is therefore, an object of this invention to Aprovide a display binsupport adapted to be positioned between a pair of outwardly extendingshelf supports which vcomprises an elongated wire or rod Spanner member,means on the Spanner member for mounting it on a shelf support, and`steadying means on the Spanner member coopf eratmg with the mountingmeans to prevent the Spanner from rolling on the shelf supports when adisplay bin is placed thereon.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the followingdescription of one embodiment ofthe invention as disclosed in theaccompanying drawings.

Of the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a partial perspective view of shelf supports with display binsupports of this invention positioned thereon and showing in dottedlines a complete and a partially broken away display bin of a commontype.

Fig. 2. is an enlarged top plan view, partiallyvbroken, of the displaybin support of this invention.

Fig. 3 is a side view ofthe support shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an end view of the support.

The display bin supports generally indicated at 10 are designed to beused with shelf supports 11 'which are commonly in use today. Normally,these shelf supports 11 are positioned in strengthened members 12 ofpartitions 13 which are either arranged against the walls (not shown) ofthe store or on islands used to divide the store into aisles. Theshelfsupports 11 as shown in Fig. 1 are normally arranged so that solidwooden or metal shelves 19 may be positioned thereon to provide amerchandise display or to provide a support for merchandise containerssuch as baskets.

The display bin supports 10 of this invention which are designed to bepositioned on the shelf supports 11 assises comprise an extensive metalSpanner wire or rod 14 which is designed to be slightly longer than thedistance between the two adjacent shelf supports 11. The ends 14a of themeta-1 rod 14 are bent to form hooks or mountingsupports. The hooks 14aare arranged to t over the shelf supports 11 and prevent thespanner frommoving longitudinally. A second metal rod 15 of substantially similarlength to the metal rod 14 is provided as a strengthening member. Themetal rod 15 has its ends 15a bent at substantially right angles so'that the rod 15 may be welded to the rod 14 at 15b. Furtherstrengthening throughout the entire length of the Spanner is provided bymeans ofa plurality of short metal rods 16 which are welded to the rods14 and 15. Thus the display bin support of this invention providessuilicient strength to uphold equally as much display weight as wascustomarily available with solid shelving. K

1n using supports such kas the one described in this invention, aproblem arose, however, since rounded metal rods have a tendency to rollwhen used between supports such as the shelf supports 11. Because theupper rod 14 is such a rounded metal rod, the flat metal pieces 17 arewelded to the rod 14 at Vsubstantially right angles to the hooks 14a.Thus the at metal pieces 17 are substantially parallel to the base of adisplay bin 18 and are in contact therewith. Therilat metal pieces 17distribute the portion of the weight concentrated on each display binsupport equally on each side of the support and prevent it from rollingon the shelf supports 11.

The display bin supports 10 may also be used with solid shelves 19 bysimply drilling holes 19a near the ends of the shelves 19 and droppingthe .hooked ends 14a into the holes as shown in Fig. 1.

Having described my invention as relating to the em- Y `rather beconstrued broadly within its spirit and scope Vas set out in theaccompanying claims.

I claim:

1. A display bin support adapted to 'be positioned be'- tween a pair ofoutwardly extending shelf supports, comprising an elongated Spannermember having a round cross section with its central portion adapted toextend between said supports in aysingle plane, said member havingdown-turned ends forming hooks beyond said supports and relatively thinflat pieces of material attached to the top portion of said Spannermember adjacent said end portions.

2. The display bin support of claim 1 wherein a lower rod is attachedtosaid Spanner member, the major portion of said lower rod being in aplane parallel to but spaced from said upper rod and with the ends ofthe lower rod being up-turned and secured to the upper rod wherein thereis a plurality of short rods connecting said two rods.

References Cited in the `tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS i i832,625 Ryan Oct. 9, 1906 850,658 Koonce Apr. v16, 1907 991,779 HoageMay 9, 1911 1,050,154 Martin Jan. 14, 1913 1,614,247 Macomber Jan. l1,1927 1,662,752 Lucy Mar. 13, 1928 1,672,887 Gross June 12, 19281,766,181 Macomber June 24, 1930 2,008,087 Stromberg July 16, 19352,032,235 Thomas Feb. 25, 1936 2,439,049 Lesko April 6, 1948 2,661,993Little Dec. 8, 1953

